It is of course well known that for a considerable number of years the ignition voltages utilized in the firing of spark plugs in conventional internal combustion engines have been supplied from a "distributor" including switches (breaker points) which are periodically opened and closed mechanically in response to rotation of a rotor in some fashion connected to the engine drive or cam shaft, so that ultimately the desired voltages from an ignition coil are delivered to the spark plugs in appropriate timed sequence.
The electrical and mechanical wear on such "distributor" components has led to the recent development of a number of breakerless "electronic ignition units." More particularly, such electronic units have included units employing electromagnets or photocells. The electromagnetic units are quite expensive and the magnetic fields are gradually distorted resultant from metal particle accumulation so that inaccurate timing results, and obviously the voltage output changes with the speed of rotor revolution. In turn, any particles or liquids (resultant from wear or the environment) produce intermittent or inaccurate timed firing of the photocell units. For whatever reason, such units have themselves introduced additional ignition problems so that as a consequence, the conventional distributor is still used in a majority of engine ignition systems.